I read about a study in the New York Times that examined differences in color perception among people who spoke languages with no real distinction between blue and green. The article said that there are actually many languages where this applies. Maybe that's why Kentucky is famous for its "Bluegrass".

Actually, I'm pretty sure no one uses this anymore. I don't think I heard it once when I was there from 86-92. The reason is simple -- payphones aren't color-coded anymore; almost all the public phones are a kind of bilious green and take prepaid phonecards.

Tony(an akachochin lover)

Yes... He did say it's not used very much anymore and it might only be some older people that just got used to saying it, but he said it's partially because of the decline of payphone useage with increased cell phone use.

Okay. I'm going try again. ( I believe at least Kotori-san has interest about this topic.)

As it was mentioned ( also in the missing posts), 青(Blue) indicate 青、緑、藍. あを(＝classic expression ) described wide range,（ from white to black, especially it meant grayish white).

Regarding traffic light....

The first traffic light as same style as modern type was placed in 1930. at that time, it was certainly green lights. we used the word 緑(green) as a legal term for traffic law. However among the people and mass media they started to call it 青 instead of 緑.
Police office expounds the reasons of why they began to call it 青．"赤・青・黄" is a same appellation(?) as "色の三原色"(Three primary colors(?)" so according to the official explanation of the police department, it's easily to understand/remember that compared with "Three primary colors".
Culturally,we feel comfortable with expression blue as green.
Although I don't know how to say "Three primary colors" in English, in Japan, we say cyan＝青、magenta＝赤、yellow＝黄.

Thus people used to call 青 instead of 緑, legal term was revised 青 in 1947.( law term followed citizen ) The traffic lights which had been set after 1973, those signals have blue color, actual color was also changed into blue as commonly called.

CONCLUSION: The Japanese traffic light is red,BLUE, yellow ( at least after 1973). that is why we call it 青.

So, the public's use of the word blue ended up changing the lights to match. That's pretty interesting! I was actually expecting a different answer. ^_^

In my hometown, at one point they started to replace all the traffic lights, and instead of being a bright, "grass green" color, they were closer to teal/blue. It was done for colorblind people, since green colorblind people had trouble and sometimes couldn't see if it was a green light, or a white street lamp (from a distance). The blue-er lights fixed that problem.

But, even those were not as blue as the ones in the photo.

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Slightly off topic: children are taught primary colors here as red, blue, yellow. I think the difference is that we teach the paint colors (mix them all, and they become black), and cyan/magenta/yellow are 'light' colors (mix them all, and they become white).

I wonder what effect that has on perception in general.... **Googles hehe**

Slightly off topic: children are taught primary colors here as red, blue, yellow. I think the difference is that we teach the paint colors (mix them all, and they become black), and cyan/magenta/yellow are 'light' colors (mix them all, and they become white).

Color space perceptible by humans is actually a 3D vector space. You can take any 3 colors, where none is combination of the other two. Name these basic colors and you can mix any color by combining these three. In computer graphics however are used these models (there are actually a lot of different models, but these are closest to natural concept of colors):

The additive model (mix them all to get white) -> RGB (red-green-blue)
they're used with lights (monitors etc.)

The subtractive model (mix them all to get black) -> CMY/CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow(-blacK))
they're used with paints (printers etc.)

So, the public's use of the word blue ended up changing the lights to match.

そうです、そうです。つたない英語の説明でしたが、通じたようでとっても嬉しい。:)

As Hark-san said "The light three primary colors(?)" are Red, Green, Blue, (right?)We call it 光の三原色＝赤・緑・青.( mix them all, they become white light) I think English and Japanese use same names for 光の三原色. But I didn't know how to say 色の三原色 and what do you say each colors in English.We just call it 赤、青、黄, but I thought it must be called magenta, cyan, yellow in English. hehe, now I am confusing enough, cannot explain even in Japanese. :p:D

In my hometown, at one point they started to replace all the traffic lights, and instead of being a bright, "grass green" color, they were closer to teal/blue.

Thanks for explanation about it. It's very good to know.
In Japan, traffic Red lights are also close to orange because of red-blindness.

By the way, I have to tell something about photo that I posted.
I took it around 17:00, cloudy day in Tokyo.
Tell the truth, even for me that photo color seems bit more teal/blue than actual color. (means the actual object that I saw is little bit greenish than the photo. Do you think lens of my eyes work fine? :p )

I think you will be interested in this site.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~xn6t-ogr/co ... s.txt.html* I guess more than 95% of Japanese can't explain about every names of traditional colors anymore. me neither. (Although I only know some of them, I think those are beautiful names.)

Although I couldn't handle even English enough, I'm happy to talk about this kind of topic. Thanks for informations again, Kotori-san.

Hark-
I know about color models for computer graphics, and the billion ways you can mix colors on a computer screen.

I was talking basic kindergarten stuff here.

When I was a child, waaaay back in the day when all computer screens were green and advanced computer graphics were ascii smilies fighting beasts represented by letters (see for yourself), RED, YELLOW, and BLUE were the primary colors (not RGB). Mix them all to get black (as in paint, dyes, etc, again not on a computer screen).

I was wondering if learning primaries from the perspective of the color of light (as cyan, magenta, and yellow are the 3 "primary" colors, if you will, that are required to combine to create white light, and therefore all the other colors of the spectrum) would actually influence, in any MEANINGFUL way, a person's perspective on all colors in general.

Anyway... I never did google it earlier.. I'll get around to it. :P

EDIT:

We call it 光の三原色＝赤・緑・青.( mix them all, they become white light)I think English and Japanese use same names for 光の三原色. But I didn't know how to say 色の三原色 and what do you say each colors in English.We just call it 赤、青、黄, but I thought it must be called magenta, cyan, yellow in English.

Right, exactly! They would be cyan, magenta, yellow to make white light.

you're right. I was used to deluxe 16-color Commodore 64 in times, when PCs used CGA . And yes, red, yellow and blue are the three primary colors, that are taught in school (actually, I wouldn't remember what I was taught even if you beat me :p - had to wiki it). What I meant was, that even when painting you don't need to use exactly these three colors.

And I really don't think that your perception of color depends on the three "primary" colors you are taught (and light/paint model neither). Maybe it depends more on what you're taught as a reference color. For example kids are told that sky is blue, but also that water(river/pond) is blue. They're different colors, but they mostly resembles the same color (sometimes ). And about that traffic light, I'm not sure how to call it (it's something between green and blue). In these intermediate cases I would say it depends on ones taste.